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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas.  It's here.

MARCH 21, 2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

BAD POLLING NUMBERS FOR JOE – FROM ISSUES AND INSIGHTS: Are you better off today under President Joe Biden than you were a year earlier? And are you financially prepared for a downturn in the economy or a job loss? The March I&I/TIPP Poll suggests most Americans would answer “no” to both of those questions. The poll asked: “Generally speaking, is your family better off today than it was one year ago, worse off than it was one year ago, or about the same as it was a year ago?” Fewer than one in five (20%) said they were “better off.” while more than twice that number — 42% — said they were “worse off.” Another 36% said they were “about the same.”
Taken as a whole, that means 78% of Americans have seen no progress or improvement at all in their financial and economic lives since Biden took over in early 2021. Despite this, Biden’s recent speeches have included references to the “best economic growth in the last four decades.” “We did it alone. Without one single solitary Republican vote,” he said in Philadelphia on March 11, speaking to House Democrats. “It was the Democrats — it was you — that brought us back.”
If that’s the message, Americans don’t seem to be buying it. And a big reason for that is likely the sudden scary surge in inflation, which hits low- and middle-class Americans hardest of all.
While wage gains have averaged 5% or higher for four straight months, unfortunately, inflation during the same period has surged by an annual rate of over 7%, and looks likely to go even higher.
Americans, it seems, are feeling the pinch of Bidenomics.  Those ungrateful Americans. Don't they realize that it's an honor to suffer?  I'm sure AOC will explain that to them, as she votes to take away their cars.

March 21, 2022     Permalink

WELL SAID – OVERNIGHT:  Occasionally we come across a piece that explains a moment in time, or at least directs us toward answers.   The historian Niall Ferguson has written such a piece, and I urge you to read it.  It contains the line, "Joe Biden must ditch the backseat diplomacy of the Obama era, which is part of what got us into this mess to begin with." Can't be more correct than that.  From Daily Mail:

There was once another loathsome Russian dictator called Vladimir – in this case Lenin – who is popularly believed to have said: 'There are decades where nothing happens; there are weeks where decades happen.'

He didn't. The real quote is from a letter Karl Marx wrote to Friedrich Engels in 1863, in which the founder of Communism argued that 20 years were 'no more than a day where major developments […] are concerned, though these may be again succeeded by days into which 20 years are compressed'.

Since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine just over three weeks ago, it does feel as if decades have been compressed into days. A great many commentators have rushed to declare this is one of history's great turning points – the end of one epoch, the beginning of another. 

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz referred to a 'Zeitenwende' (a 'turning of the times'). 'The world after this,' he declared, 'is no longer the same as the world before.' And in some obvious ways he is undeniably right.

With its 'policy for the East' (Ostpolitik), Germany has pursued closer economic links with Russia since the late 1960s. Scholz's predecessor, Angela Merkel, even believed it made sense to make Europe dependent on Russian natural gas and oil. 

All that is over. So, too, are Germany's post-war days of pacifism, as defence spending is due to increase to at least two per cent of GDP, belatedly catching up with the ten NATO members (including the UK) who fulfil their burden-sharing obligations.

And why is this? After all, Putin has long been a murderer and warmonger: this is his fourth invasion of a sovereign state since 2008. Yet somehow the smaller scale of his previous wars allowed the delusion to persist that he was still someone with whom the West could do business. 

But now, with mass graves in besieged Mariupol, with much of Kharkiv reduced to rubble, and with millions of refugees fleeing West, there is no longer any denying it.

The scenes are too familiar. Turn off the colour and they could be photographs from Eastern Europe in the Second World War. So, yes, it certainly feels like the end of an interwar period. And now, you might think, only the details of this turning point need to be finalised.

Namely, how quickly can Europe's defence spending be cranked up? And how quickly can we find alternatives to Russian gas and oil?

In neither case is the answer measurable in weeks, but clearly there is an impetus for these things to happen, and irreversibly.

The return of the brutal Russian bear has shattered the illusion that peace in Europe was a free lunch paid for by the Americans and cooked on Russian gas.

COMMENT:  Please read the rest. Ferguson is setting out the various ways the current crisis can either end, or melt into a larger one. He actually knows what he's talking about, and comes down hard on American leadership, or lack of it.

I think Americans sensed, right from the first day of battle, that Ukraine is different. It does remind us of the battles of World War II that we first saw in black-in-white. It is not that the world will now be different.  It will be. But in what ways?  And where will this weakly led countries of ours stand?  At the top, or as a relic of history to be gently pushed aside?

March 21, 2022     Permalink

MARCH 20, 2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT IN EDUCATION – FROM THE NEW YORK POST: A school district in Colorado has plans to do away with valedictorian awards at its high schools.
Starting with the class of 2026, the Cherry Creek School District in western Arapahoe County, Colorado, will not give special recognition to students who have earned the highest grade-point average in their class at graduations, according to FOX 31 Denver KDVR. The school district notified parents about the ceremonial change in a recent newsletter, the local news station reported.
The newsletter said faculty have found the tradition no longer appropriate for their students. 
“The practices of class rank and valedictorian status are outdated and inconsistent with what we know and believe of our students,” said the letter, which is dated March 9, 2022. “We believe all students can learn at high levels, and learning is not a competition.” Instead of having the highest-ranking student deliver a graduation farewell address, the Cherry Creek School District will acknowledge academic achievements “through various other ways,” including an honor roll, GPA honor cords at graduation, and department- and school-specific award ceremonies.The letter claims the Cherry Creek School District consulted local schools, colleges and universities in Colorado to ensure its decision to eliminate valedictorian distinction does not harm students in admission processes.  Look, valedictorian awards are not absolutely necessary for schools, but why do I get the feeling that the real motive here is to glorify mediocrity? The left controls the schools and the left hates excellence.  The world isn't buying what these "modern" schools are selling, but their students won't know it until they find themselves unequal to the world's challenges.

March 20, 2022     Permalink

THE WAR TALK IS GETTING FRIGHTENING – OVERNIGHT: As the Ukraine war heats up, and casualties rise, the language of the conflict is also reaching the boiling point. Horrible conflicts usually begin with words. From Fox:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of a third world war if peace talks with Russia fail during a television interview that aired Sunday.

Zelenskyy said that "any format" should be used in order to have a possibility of negotiating with Russia, in particular Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I think that we have to use any format, any chance in order to have a possibility of negotiating, possibility of talking to Putin. But if these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third World War," Zelenskyy said.

"If there is just 1 percent chance for us to stop this war, I think that we need to take this chance, we need to do that," he added.

The president of Ukraine also said that without negotiations, he does not believe the war will end.

"I am ready for negotiations with him. I was ready over the last two years, and I think that without negotiations, we cannot end this war," Zelenskyy said during the interview with CNN.

In terms of negotiations, Zelenskyy said that he would not give up territorial integrity and Ukraine's sovereignty.

"There are compromises for which we cannot be ready as an independent state. Any compromises related to our territorial integrity and our sovereignty and the Ukrainian people have spoken about it — they have not greeted Russian soldiers with a bunch of flowers, they have greeted them with bravery, they have greeted them with weapons in their hands," he said.

COMMENT:  There are rumors of peace talks, but what is there to talk about? The Russian attacks of the last few days have been the worst of the war. Many Ukrainian sites that have been hit
no doubt hold bodies that have not yet been recovered. It is clear that Russia is engaged in mass murder.  Meanwhile, the Biden administration, supposedly the leader of the free world, has very little to say. We did get a glimpse of the president riding a bike this weekend, but nothing else. No one seems terribly bothered by Ukraine.  We wonder where Kamala Harris is. If you see her, tell her to write.

The president will be attending an "emergency" meeting of NATO in Brussels this week. The world will want to know whether the United States has anything to say. They may start looking elsewhere for leadership.

March 20, 2022      Permalink